First let's get this out of the way: In terms of art design, soundtrack, characters, and overall zany vibe, Chaotix is absolutely beautiful. It's the only game to even get close to recapturing the style of Sonic CD (my personal favourite).
Where it falls flat is the gameplay, and not just because the physics are bad and the layouts are bland.
But because it's fundamentally flawed, in its core concept.
Now, IMO, the point of playing Sonic games is what could almost be called the "power trip". All video games are about role playing to some degree, but Sonic lets you step into the shoes of a character who can traverse the environment with an exceptional ease that totally demolished every other sidescroller from the era.
Yuji Naka, who had cut his teeth porting other sidescrolling games to Sega systems, wanted to make a platform game that let the player move fast, and fluidly. That gave the player the same sensation that he got when he drove his sports cars. From the behaviour of the platforms, to the curved environments, to the fact that the player can defeat enemies just by passing through them, Sonic is based on what the community sometimes calls "flow". Nothing about the game is finicky, unfair, or plodding. Even the maligned Labyrinth Zone feels freeing compared to the straightjacket of platformers like Mario, or Ghouls & Ghosts.
I think that this is paramount to the enjoyment of Sonic - to my enjoyment, certainly. I didn't get out much as a kid, and being able to run and jump and roll through fantastic locations was the greatest form of escapism. I've come to elevate this aspect to the central tenet of my own Sonic fangame, which I'm calling "Sonic Freedom" for this very reason.
Chaotix destroys this freedom. What's more, it does so deliberately. Like Sonic Labyrinth, its very existence is predicated on removing the player's freedom. "Shackles" Chaotix would be an apt title. They intentionally limit the player's influence at every turn - from the random zone order, to the Combi Catcher character select, to the burdensome Heavy and Bomb.
Now, there is a interesting moral lesson in Chaotix. The deeper meaning seems to be that, while the characters are fettered, they can work together, find new powers through the imaginative use of their bonds, and ultimately prevail.
However, a 9-year-old kid doesn't care about that. They just want to play Sonic, and be free.
So, in a nutshell, Sonic is all about making you feel like an awesome superhero. Chaotix, on the otherhand, is all about making you feel like you've got a disability.
There's a reason, for all its pizzazz, it failed. Because it wasn't a good idea.
(Alright, I suppose if the physics had been easier to immediately grasp by the average player, like Sonic 1's were, it probably could have worked. But for me, and I'm assuming most people, it's a tedious chore to even walk in a straight line in Chaotix, even after over a decade of practice. Progress in the game ends up being more random than anything else; hence the name Chaotix, I suppose.)
